Posts by MMXIV

44

I now have a law degree!

by digderidoo in

jw
friends

hi guys, i don't really post on here much anymore, having been on here since 2001. this site helped me out in the early days and has been a great support system for all of my past jw issues.

like many others i was discouraged from an education so that i could window clean and pioneer in my youth during the 80's.

having spent many years post my jw exit in alcoholism and periods of drugs, i decided to clean myself up 7 years ago by attending aa, i was still a window cleaner ... at the time i wrote extensively on here about my issues.

MMXIV

Hi Digderidoo, well done - great update - that's some achievement.

It sounds like you're involved with something you really care about. I'm sure there were plenty of small successes along the way to keep you going and plenty more tough times. Hope you get to celebrate some time soon with a well-earned break.

It goes without saying that you'll now face the largest challenge yet - how to resist the temptation of a prestigious place at bethel as your skills will be in high demand (assuming you ate humble pie and chose to return to the fold) ;-)

mmxiv

14

BBC Article on Train Station Witnessing

by scotinsw in

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28166192.

can't make link clickable!.

i pass them in london on a daily basis at one of mainline train stations in the city and the only people i've seen talking to them are lost tourists (looking for directions).

MMXIV

So this is not a change of tactics - inaccurate reporting. It's true that they are outside exits at Oxford street station on a daily basis and placed in tourist spots like Trafalgar Square. However this is not new - I used to do street / station witnessing 20+ years ago along with loads of others in my cong (quite embarrassing due to the low footfall). In other countries like Germany it's been done for decades at shopping centres etc. Whilst it's way more effective than knocking on doors still the huge proportion of field service will be door to door (in percentage terms I'd speculate at high 90's).

"The Singhs are both cutting back on their paid work away from the movement" - perhaps the reporter should have posed the question whether more benefits would be claimed by the couple. Many JW's will do part time work and claim benefits whilst labelling the tax payers they rely on as greedy lovers of money.

mmxiv

74

Breaking News :Charity Commission takes Wathtower to Tribunal in Britain

by raymond frantz in

breaking news :charity commission takes watchtower to charity tribunal in britain.

two weeks ago we run an article about the abuse case in moston manchester congregation .it would seem that the coverage from the main local newspaper manchester evening news and two national newspapers has alarmed the charity commission the official regulator for charities in england and wales and now for the first time !

they opened an official investigation on both charities ,the local one ,moston congragation and the central one jehovah's witnesses of britain indicating that in their eyes these two are connected and liable for any misconduct .this is the time for a concentrated campaign from all of us to inform the charity commission why the watchtower should not be a called a charity .the article above has a link for the charity commission complaint page .follow it!.

MMXIV

This is an interesting case as from what I understand it's not based on historic policies that the WBTS can distance itself from and claim new light. The WBTS may be required to update certain policies around JC's which are quite a fundamental part of its shunning policy.

Inadequate / wrong child safeguarding policies are a definite weak link for the WBTS. And their practice must be complaint to their policy.

The charity commission will work with charities to help them rectify issues so a likely outcome is a report detailing failings and required policy changes. The WBTS will not want to lose charity status - not just for the money issue (which won't be massive as they'll find a way through transfer pricing to reduce their profit to zero) but will be of huge embarrassment. Mind you they will claim it's an attack from Satan as an excuse to get more donations.

Most importantly if WBTS are forced to change their safeguarding policies this will likely reduce cases of abuse whether reported or not and for those reported the extra needless humiliation and distress caused by such degrading religious courtroom inquisitions.

mmxiv

28

Donation of blood fractions

by why144000 in

jw
friends

this may be the wrong area for this but here goes.. if you went to a bank and told them " i don't have an account with you, i never will have an account with you and i will tell people you are a terrible bank" then ask not for a loan from them, but a gift of a lot of money, how do you think they would respond?.

yet, witnesses now have the the ability to take blood fractions from the blood bank without ever contributing to the blood bank.

there is a process that the blood bank takes just the plasma from a donor to be used for fractions only.

MMXIV

it might actually make them realise their long held doctrine had changed, whereas they still say "we still don't accept blood".

I started donating soon after I left. Not everyone can donate for lots of reasons but if you can then it's quite simple.

By donating blood an apostate would save a JW's life but JW's refuse to save an apostate's life. So who's the good Samaritan?

mmxiv

35

My first post: Pet Peeves from my JW past

by BarHarborBarbara in

jw
friends

first post here: longtime lurker but hesitant to take the leap.

my story is pretty much like everyone elses with little variance, but i thought id add a few details that especially tormented me when i was in.

im sure these are familiar, im afraid this is a bit of a rant.. --paradise: the constant chatter about a perfect world when most in the hall were not even slightly interested in taking care of the earth now.

MMXIV

welcome! Your pet peeves clearly demonstrate the double standards of what life as a JW is like and how it often brings out the worst in people.

I've found the WBTS have at times been actively environmentally friendly but mostly when it is cheaper or they can boast about it. As an organisation that constructs acres of concrete buildings, prints billions of magazines that are mostly unread and whose followers drive round the territory for pointless return visits they sure are relying on a superpower to clean up their mess.

mmxiv

6

Emotional cruelty law considered in the UK.

by nicolaou in

"the (uk) government is considering whether to introduce a new offence of emotional cruelty to children, it has been confirmed.

the proposed change to neglect laws in england and wales would see parents who deny their children affection face prosecution for the first time.. mr williams's bill would add a further category of harm for which the perpetrator could be punished: impairment of "physical, intellectual, emotional, social or behavioural development".

i'd like to hear from mr paul gillies or any other watchtower representative in the uk as to how they'd square this proposed new legislation with their doctrine of disfellowshipping minors.

MMXIV

From discussions on national radio with experts it seems that this will be targeting more extreme cases where serious psychological effects will be manifest. At the moment social workers can identify many occassions where there is emotional abuse having recent guidelines yet police are bound by criminal law that is based upon a law from 1933.

It's a great step in the right direction. I certainly believe that emotional abuse can be as harmful if not more so than physical abuse. Whether any cases involve JW children in years to come will be one to watch.

mmxiv

11

Author McEwan condemns Jehovah's Witnesses as 'perverse and inhumane'

by Watchtower-Free in

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10728126/mcewan-condemns-perverse-and-inhumane-decisions-of-religious-parents.html.

non religious people are better at making reasonable, compassionate judgements, ian mcewan argues, as he condemns the "utterly perverse and inhumane" decision of religious parents allowing their children to die.. mcewan, the author of atonement, on chesil beach and enduring love, said he believed religion to be "distinctly unhelpful" in making rational choices.. his new book, the children's act, will explore the issues of the family courts, and the heartbreaking decisions faced when parents insist their child must die for religious reasons.. speaking at the oxford literary festival, mcewan used the examples of jehovah's witnesses who refused a blood transfusion for their son, and catholic parents who insisted their conjoined twins must not be separated.. his plot, finished only last week, will follow the judge's decision on whether to save the stronger twin at the expense of his dying brother.. .

when asked whether he had learned anything from his time observing medical decisions in the family courts, he said: "i found generally that religion was distinctly unhelpful in making compassionate, reasonable judgments about people's lives.. "on the whole, the secular mind seems far superior in making reasonable judgments.. "especially with the jehovah's witness, where parents allow their children to die because of some theological line invented in 1945 by a committee, seems to be utterly perverse and inhumane.".

MMXIV

He has a significantly large readership and during his book tour (sold out at this week's Oxford literary festival highly publicised and sponsored by the Financial Times) he freely comments about the JW leaders having these terrible policies. This will be in the media and discussed in promotion of his book for the next year. It helps that he is a great author so I'm sure more than a few JW's will buy his next book.

mmxiv

29

shock horror! WITNESSING ATTIRE NOW CONDONES OPEN-NECK SHIRTS FOR MALES!

by steve2 in

jw
friends

go to jw.org right now friends and you will see a young male jw witnessing in a rural setting with publication in hand and - take careful note - wearing a crisply-white open-neck shirt.

bring out the carnival, light the lights: the organ ization is kicking itself into an ongoing casualization of its rank and file.. in the 1960s through 1980s i know brothers who dared to attire themselves sans ties who were reprimanded or worse.

.

MMXIV

There was a picture in the WT of someone informally witnessing wearing sandals, no tie and he even had a beard. He seemed to think his life saving message was more important than what he was wearing. Might have been Jesus. I guess it's not what's in our hearts but what people can see that counts in JW world

101

Name your Top Ten or However Many you can Favorite Comedy Movies

by flipper in

jw
friends

started one thread serious, so thought i'd go light and easy on this one.

so what say yee to this?

here are mr. flippers, about in this order, but not necessarily.

MMXIV

Life of Brian (He's not the messiah he's a very naughty boy)

There's something about Mary (I'm f'ing with you Ted)

Holy Grail (It's just a flesh wound)

Groundhog Day (Ned?)

Kingpin (We don't have a cow, we have a bull...)

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (May I go to the bathroom...)

American Pie (This one time, in band camp, I stuck a flute up my...)

Old School (So what are you, campus security? Try again. Jehovah's Witness?)

Wedding Crashers (It's a game of touch football!)

The Party (Birdie num num)

mmxiv

72

Did you ever have a supernatural experience?

by XPeterX in

jw
friends

ok i know some of you are going to mock me but i don't give a shit and you'd better get dafaq outta this thread if you don't beleive in this stuff.. .

so,you ever seen somethin strange?shadow people?felt cold spots?touched by something you can't see?beaten by an unseen force?heard voices/whispers/growls/screams etc?are you sure about it or was it just your imagination?you ever been into the occult?c'mon share your experiences and stories!personally i've never had an encounter with the other side..

MMXIV

sleep paralysis - now that brings back some deep dark memories. JWN reaches parts that other websites can't. Not sure I want to revist that but at least it explains some vivid scary moments in earlier life.

I don't want to belittle others experiences as I'm still learning all the time. I feel one can read a lot more into situations than is the case and one's imagination is just that - imaginative.

I do believe EMF contributes to supernatural experiences in recent years.

mmxiv